Dr. Jeebus wrote:

If you're going to make the claim that this movie is "brilliant" and that we're all apparently missing the point of it, I'd definitely like to hear an explaination.

No prob. This will be a very basic outline of what I think the film COULD mean. It's certainly what seemed the most obvious to me after researching a bit. The film was made by an Afrikaaner expat, who was forced to leave South Africa around the age of 10 due to the country changing. He still kept tabs on his homeland, and watched how it evolved from what he knew as a child. Any slightly-deeper-than-cursory investigation on South Africa will tell you it's turned out. This is partly why it is set in Johannesburg. Bear in mind that an Afrikaaner made this movie, and it will make more sense.

Firstly, the mother ship was basically being run by one set of aliens, who piloted and kept things running ship-shape, with the other set of aliens being basically drones for slave labor. My personal theory as to why the ship just stopped over earth is that the drone-class rebelled and killed most of the smarter aliens(re: the pilot class,) but it could just as easily have been an illness that overtook the pilot class, or internal squabbles amongst said class. At any rate, the pilot class was unable to keep the ship running and were forced to evacuate, hence the escape pod dropping. They left the drones on board, and left to their own devices, without any intelligence or guidance, they were basically helpless and left to starve to death. Hence, the drones being huddled around fires and the like when the humans finally enter the ship.

The drones are simple-minded, violent, and without drive or ambition(this is stated almost verbatim in the film.) They cannot function on their own, except on a very basic level. They cannot even grasp the fact that with the weapons they possess, they could easily command respect from the humans. They barely seem able to use them, for that matter. They are more content to trade them to humans in exchange for some temporary gratification(the addictive cat food.) They don't really even rebel against their rather unpleasant(to my eyes at least) situation.

However, there is one alien from the pilot class still alive. Chris. Well, along with his son. These are the only two green aliens you will see in the entire film, until the very end. Every other alien is red, brown, or yellow. This is a very important part. Chris is intelligent, he is driven. Chris is not content to live in some refugee camp. He wishes to return to his home, to what he knew, and he has the knowledge and intelligence to do so.

Now, the thesis of this film, you may agree or disagree with it. Hell, I can almost guarantee you'll disagree with it, but that's alright. Nevertheless, this is what I saw almost screamed at the viewer:

The drones are the Africans. Chris is the Afrikaaner.

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

So my other boss saw this this weekend and said it was brilliant, but for COMPLETELY different reasons than anyone here has. In fact, I don't think it's even been so much as mentioned here, but he said that the movie is a black comedy and is in no way supposed to be a serious look at apartheid. I'm curious what everyone who thought it was poignantly brilliant thought regarding that, as it certainly makes MUCH more sense than it being a serious film.

That's an interesting take on it, and I'll be honest, I hadn't even thought of that.

However, considering the interviews that the director has given regarding the film, I don't think it's very likely.

SoldierHawk wrote:

Well, I guess that depends on what you call the overall thrust of the movie. Like I said, I saw the movie as serious with elements intended to be comic. The cat food/porn thing were two of the elements I considered deliberately funny. But the overall thrust of the movie--that is, the subjugation of the prawns by humans, and the way both Wikus and Christopher had to overcome their prejudice in order to work together, seemed anything but funny. Of course, there was that stuff where they flayed prawns alive. And the part where they tortured Wikus in order to learn more about his DNA and shit. Oh, and the part where he was begging and pleading not to be forced to kill that prawn. Or the part where we finally see Wikus' change of heart in action, and he essentially (thinks he is about to) sacrifice his life and/or his chance at being human again in order to save a species that he heretofore looked on as not much better than animal. Absolutely hilarious, amirite?

You left out all the shit the Prauns did, which was not very savory. Bad juju all around. I think it's important to draw a distinction between the Prauns and Chris, because it was a pretty huge difference.

Something important of note is that it was not humans per se that were so cruel to the drones(all of the humans found them a nuisance, but it was only those Nigerians that wanted to fucking EAT THEM,) but MNU, the multi-national corporation/de facto government. MNU profited from the aliens being there, and only more so if they could harness their technology.

That should tell you something even further about what the message of the film is.